Sin Again
by toolezbionic
Summary: Have you ever seen the episode of charmed when the gang get infected with orbs of sin? Well what if the box containing those orbs mysteriously ended up in Rome with the scoobies and they ended up infected too? post chosen/NFA. Comics disregarded.
1. Prologue

**Sin Again**

Prologue

It was two years after the Scoobies' final battle and everything seemed to be going just fine. Sure there were a couple monsters here and a couple demons there, but it was nothing ever really apocalyptic. This was finally Buffy's chance to live normally like she had always wanted to. They were still in the process of finding new slayers, but Buffy was just happy that she wasn't the one and only anymore (except for the wonderful Faith of course). Life was good for once.

What even made things more great was that Spike and Angel eventually showed up after there battle in L.A.

After the Battle in L.A.

_After oh so many hours of battle the very last demon was finally slain. There stood the three heroic figures that were all bloody, bruised, and run down, well at least two of them were._

"_My being is not yet satisfied. I require more confrontation with numerous more foes." Illyria said while looking for more enemies to hit._

"_You have got to be joking." Spike collapsed out of exhaustion. "And how in the bleedin' hell did we survive that?"_

"_Let's just focus on the fact that we did" Angel did the same as Spike and lied on the ground next to him. _

"_Wait a tick." Spike took his hand and put it above his heart. His face turned cold and disappointed. "No. My heart isn't beating!"_

"_What?" Angel spoke in confusion._

"_My heart. Don't tell me you…" He got up and ran over Angel putting his hand on his chest._

"_Stop touching me!" Angel said well fighting him off._

"_I am intrigued. Please advance with this activity" Illyria said causing the two vampires on the ground to jump off each other._

"_In case you were wondering, Spike, I am not alive either."_

"_Please don't tell me that that means that we have bigger nasties to defeat?" Spike moaned._

_Then all of a sudden a random guy comes stumbling into the alley way while acting very overjoyed._

"_MY HEART! MY HEART! I can feel it!" yelled the guy._

_Angel and Spike looked blindly at him and said "WHAT?!"_

"_The Shanshu prophecy was correct! I am alive again!"_

_They both then had the 'you have got to be kidding me' look until Spike got up and said…_

"_You reckon we should give him a bit of a rough 'n tumble?"_

"_I think we can do better than that." Angel replied._

It turns out that the man who had gained humanity after the battle was named Ronald Kornal. He had been a vampire since 1722, but he was unique. For some reason he was reanimated in mere seconds after being sired which didn't give his soul enough time to exit his body. Ron was in LA during the battle and unexpectedly found some gem embedded in the ground. He picked it up and all of a sudden it beamed and a bunch of the hellish demons were exterminated. Spike and Angel were not happy. Of coarse they didn't kill him, or even really beat him. They just did their own way to get that information from him.

After a while of being fairly disappointed and pissed off the last remaining three of the gang in LA decided to fly out to Rome. Obviously the reason behind that was to see Buffy. The only thing is that seeing Spike alive and kicking would be a huge surprise. That apparently didn't occur to them as they aimlessly showed up at her doorstep.

_Buffy sat in her cozy Rome apartment while sipping a cup of tea. She was currently looking over some of the lists of now-active slayers they still had to find when she heard a couple of voices from the other side of the door. She dropped the papers down In front of her and set her tea on the end table. Buffy opened the door and was amazed at what she saw. Spike and Angel didn't notice her in the doorway and continued the argument that they were having._

"_You are just so full of yourself. You…" Angel said until being cut off by Spike._

"_No! You are just upset because my hair is way beyond better than yours."_

"_Oh really! Well at least I can't be detected from 10 miles away with that sun attached to your head."_

"_No, they can detect you with the foul smell of the gallons of hair gel you wear every day."_

_It was then when Buffy decided to cut them off._

"_W-what, I mean how. You…"_

_ Both of the vampires turned toward her with a bit of guilt._

"_Well, Buffy. I bet you are a bit surprised to see us. You know, Angel is supposed to be all in his big chair and I'm suppose to be, well, burned to a bloody crisp…"_

_Then all of a sudden they heard a voice coming from within the apartment._

"_SPIKE! Angel!" Andrew came running out in Harry Potter Pj's and gave Spike a big hug. "Did you guys get the postcards I sent?"_

"_Yes, uhh, all 13 of them." Angel said trying to make his voice sound a way where he could take the hint of the awkward situation between the three. "Buffy, can we come in?"_

_Buffy forced herself from the trance she was in and focused on what he just said. "yeah, sure"._

_She moved out of the way for them and they walked in while being followed by Illyria who was silent that whole time. Buffy stared in confusion._

"_This is Illyria. She's with us." Angel said as Illyria walked in._

There they answered all of Buffy's questions. They explained all that happened with Spike and the senior partners. She seemed to understand why they didn't tell her of Spikes return, but wasn't too happy when she found out that they were in Rome not to long ago and didn't announce themselves then. Buffy felt like it was thanksgiving 5 years ago all over again. But then she eventually excepted it.

A number of weeks went by and Spike, Angel, and Illyria found their own places (Illyria ended up living with Spike). As much as Angel objected, Buffy started to reconnect to Spike and they became closer than ever. They were actually becoming happy.

Then three months after the whole reunion Willow, Xander, and Giles came into town for their big meeting about the rebuilding of the watchers council. And that is where our story truly begins…


	2. 1According to the plan

Disclaimer: I do not own these Characters or settings. They are Joss Whedon's. All hail to Joss Whedon for creating them in the first place!

**Chapter 1**

All According to the plan 

It was 8:00 in the morning when all of a sudden the alarm clock went of in an irritating buzzing sound. Buffy awoke, slapped the alarm off, and turned to the actually fully clothed figure next to her. She shook his shoulder, attempting to get him to come out of a deep sleep.

"Spike! Spike, Come on get up!" She said continuing to shake him. All Spike did was sleepishly turn toward her, his eyes still closed, and put his arm around her waist. Buffy gave in quite easily (spike and his gosh darn charm!) and cuddled into his body. "Fine. Another half hour. But no more then that because the both of us have to go and meet with the gang."

There relationship felt absolutely normal, which of course Buffy never expected one with Spike would be. They slept in the same bed every night just holding each other like they did the last few days before the Hellmouth was closed. It never really did get any farther than just holding each other though. It isn't like Buffy objected to taking things forward, but it seemed like he didn't want them that way. Spike wouldn't let things get too physical between them because he still hasn't forgiven himself for trying to force himself on her two and a half years ago even if Buffy had. She couldn't convince him that they had gotten passed it, but the moments still haunted his mind.

It was now noon and the two love birds finally came out of the apartment, all dressed and ready to go. Both of them left for the meeting place.

"Why did you have to make it so difficult to get out of bed? Now we are going to be late."

"Come on now love. It wasn't only my fault. You were the one who insisted on me staying last night. Hold on." He said slowing her down so he could pull out his blanket. "Good thing that this place is just around the corner. I bet I look like a nancy pants idiot under this"

Everybody was already sitting at a long table while waiting for the two. There sat Willow, Giles, Xander, Dawn, Angel, Andrew, and Illyria looking bored. Willow began to tap her fingers.

"They were still asleep when I left. I left early and didn't want to wake them. They are probably on there way right now." Dawn said which just made Angel's eyes roll while being envious of Spike.

"You're right Dawn. I am sure that they will only be a couple of minutes."

Then the door bursts open with the practically on fire Spike running in having the blanket over his head and Buffy comes gingerly walking behind him. The group all stopped in there tracks and looked up at the 'over sleepers'. But then Buffy looked back at them and smiled.

"Hey guys. It's been a long time." She said being exited that she gets to see her friends again.

"Yeah, we've missed you." Willow got up to go and hug her. Xander and Giles soon followed.

"I missed you guys too, but you do remember that I require oxygen just like everyone else." Buffy gasped for air so they jumped off. "Okay, shall we get stated with this meeting or whatever it is?"

The Scoobies haven't all been together in forever and they were just so happy to be seeing each other again. All of them, including Spike, went back over to the table to sit down.

"Well, Buffy as you know we have been considering re-creating the watchers council. Now I of course will be the head of the council and I have asked Willow to be my co-runner, but what I want you to do is be the one to monitor our staff. Be the one to decide who we want and how we want them. To make sure that they are…" Giles was saying until Buffy cuts off his last few words.

"Not stuffy old British feedbags?"

"Well if that's how you want to put it then yes."

"Just think about it Buffy. We would get to call the shots and decisions. And we will be able to revise the process. The whole system could be so much better." Willow began

"And I am going to be managing the location settings for each of the headquarters. Were talking about Cleveland, Japan, Germany, London, Nigeria, Australia, and here in Rome." Xander added.

"That sounds great. When exactly do we get started?" Buffy asked

"I figured as soon as possible. But we still need some more people to join our watcher training program." Giles next sentence was cut off again.

"I call it." Andrew said raising his hand.

"Well you can, but first we wanted to ask Dawn." Willow explained.

"Me? Girl who is too young for anything? Really?" She said exited that she was finally asked

"Yes. We reckon you to make a very good watcher." Said Giles in his British accent.

"But what about school? She is still has to finish her senior year." Buffy questioned.

"Well we were planning on doing just light training that she can do when she gets home from school and then get into more of the hard core stuff during the summer." Willow explained.

"That all sounds great, but Dawn, Don't you want to go to college?" Buffy cast her glance over to Dawn.

"Well, this is what I want to do for a living. And basically it is like a college. I mean wouldn't it be cool if I could become a watcher? I am already pretty good with resources of spells and demons and stuff."

"I guess if it's what you really want to do then do it. I still think that you should apply to other colleges, just incase."

"Really Buffy?" Dawn said excited

"Yep. Go be little miss know it all."

Dawn got so happy that she ran over to hug Buffy than ran over Willow and Giles and hugged the too.

"Oh thank you so much!"

In a dark underground layer a man was reveal behind a cloud of smoke. There he held a white box, keeping it close to his body. The man then took a white staff and tapped it on the ground which opened a portal in the ground. It had swirling blue lights and was filled with skeletons that ran across the sides. Out of know where seven white orbs flew up from the portal. The white box that the man held jerked open and the orbs placed themselves in the box's compartments. When the box closed up again it began to glow luminously. The man smiled.


	3. 2Coping With disasters

Disclaimer: I do not own these Characters or settings. They are Joss Whedon's. All hail to Joss Whedon for creating them in the first place!

**Chapter 2**

Coping with disasters 

After the gang took almost the whole day talking about their plans for the new council they decided to have some fun by going to a Roman night club The place was blaring loud rock music and the dance floor was crowded with a bunch of ravers. They finally found a table that was big enough for all of them in one of the quieter corners.

The area had two couches and a chair that surrounded the table. Willow, Xander, and Andrew took one couch, Giles, Dawn, and Angel took the other one while Buffy sat on the chair with Spike sitting on the arm of it. The waitress took their drink orders and came back with two martinis, four beers, a sprite, and a coke.

Willow stared at her martini, not paying any attention to any of the conversation that where happening around her. Then she half snapped out of it when she heard Buffy repeat her name.

"I'm sorry… What did you say?" Willow asked blindly.

"I asked how Kennedy was doing. Is she still coming out here?"

"Yeah, her flight is tomorrow morning." She remained to stare past her drink without taking a sip.

Xander notices this and puts a friendly hand on to hers.

"Hey, how ya doin?" He asked

"I'm fine. Really." She assured him as she got up and sat her drink down. "I'll be right back. I just need to go and use the rest room."

As soon as she left Buffy glanced at Xander in utter confusion.

"What's wrong with Willow?"

Dawn spoke up saying "You don't remember?"

"No" She looked guilty because obviously this whole thing was a pretty big deal.

"I do believe that tomorrow is the anniversary of young Tara's death. Giles stated.

"Oh, god. That's right. I can't believe that I could of possibly forgotten. Poor Will."

"Don't worry about it. I figure that if you show her your support now she will know that you care. Spike mumbled with a newly lit cigarette in his mouth.

"Spike's right." Xander said with one of those 'there's something that I though that I wouldn't say in a million years.' Though going through his head "She's grieving, but we can be there for her. Just like the past three years since Tara died."

But the all of a sudden Buffy realized something else as Xander spoke of grieving.

"Wait, Xander. What about you? It's getting pretty close to the time when you lost Anya."

"I just think that we need to have all of our focus on Willow right now. I will be okay." They all gave him a skeptical look. "Don't get me wrong. I mean every day I wish that I could have just died for her, but at time like these my pain can't really even resemble Willow's. Not only did her girlfriend get shop and die, but she also has to deal with the fact that she killed a human being." He explained

It was then when she came back and sat right down in her chair. She took her martini glass and downed the whole thing in a matter of seconds.

"Willow, are you sure you're alright?" Dawn said with concern.

"Maybe not at the moment, but I am sure that if I go on that dance floor and boogey with my friends, I'll be giddy in no time." She said with enthusiasm.

"This isn't like your last 'shake and shimmy it off' philosophy. You know the one where you get all drunk and insult those friends you talked about." Buffy reminded.

"Of course not! I am not even drunk…yet. This time it will be different."

"Okay, then let's go dance." Buffy said while everybody except Spike and Angel got up. Buffy very gently tugged on Spike's coat. "You coming?"

"If you think that I am going to go bumbling around like a great poofter the you're horribly mistaken"

"Fine." Buffy. She didn't have too much of a reaction to his answer because she was pretty much expecting him to say something like that. She looked up at Angel and said "You wanna come?"

This made Spike glare at him in the 'you better the hell not'.

"No" He held up his beer. "I think I am going to sit and finish this." Angel was too tired to have a big confrontation with him so he though he would just avoid the meaning of Spike's threatening look.

Buffy lightly glided her fingers over Spike's shoulders as she walked off to follow her friends and both vampires just watched her leave. Then Spike glanced at Angel to find him still staring in the direction of the dance floor.

"So how is that so called girlfriend of yours? What's her name?"

Angel broke out of his trance and answered his question. "Nina. Her name is Nina."

"Awe, yes. Old Nina. Have you tried looking her up yet?"

"Is that any of your business?"

Spike grinned "you know what I think?..."

"No. And personally I don't want to know what you think Spike." Angel said cutting him off.

Spike slugged back into the comfy part of the chair "I reckon that you haven't. Because you are still dealing with the fact that Buffy chose me. So much for that 'that is why she never really loved you. Because you weren't me' you went on about. You were supposed to be her love of her life and she wanted me instead."

"Spike, would you just shut up!" Angel began to raise his voice a bit.

"Oohoo… Guess I was right. And no, I don't want to stop. It's my turn to have the girl. I just want a little taste of this." Spike gloated.

That made Angel get up and head for the door. Spike gave himself a little grin.

Angel scoffed as he exited the club and walked down the alley way. He HATED this! He was so use to being the top dog. The most evil, getting what ever he wanted, the first with a soul, Buffy's FIRST love. This situation was such a turn around that it was hard to bare. And the fact that it was about the person he cared most in the world going with the man he couldn't stand. It was the most frustrating thing he had been in in the longest time.

He continued to walk through the alley way alone.

The ghostly like man who held the white box of unknown contents was creeping around the same alley way as Angel. He hid behind a dumpster, waiting for his opportune moment to put his plan into action.

As soon as Angel passed by the dumpster he stopped and realized that somebody was following him. The man had no choice to reveal himself now for there was no hiding he could do. He just had to do things a little bit faster then he had intended. He jumped out and shocked Angel.

"Who the hell are you?" Angel demanded

"I think the question is who are you?" The man pulled up his hand and paused Angel's movement with a psychic power. He took his other hand and put it over Angel's eyes. "Hmmm… I think that this one will suit you just fine." He opened the box and threw a glowing orb at him with it flashing green when it made contact with his body.


	4. 3Bad Affects

Disclaimer: The characters and settings in this story are not mine. They are the magical workings of Joss Whedon and Mutant enemy.

**A/N: I am sorry that this took a while to get out. I finally finished it a couple of weeks ago, but my laptops internet connection was being screwy, so yeah. Also note that I am aware of the fact that I used the word Affects instead of effects. It's a play on words for the chapter (some people didn't get that). I really hope you like this chapter. ENJOY!**

**Chapter Three**

Bad Affects

Spike chugged back the rest of his beer and got the waitresses' attention so he could ask for another one. He was quite pleased with himself. After all this time of losing everything to Angel he finally got his chance to make an extra big gloat. He looked up at his love who was having a great time dancing with her friends. She saw him and decided to walk back over to where he was sitting. Buffy smiled but then looked to where Angel was before and was confused.

"Where did Angel go?" Buffy asked causing Spike to scoff.

"Peaches and I had some what of a scrap. He got a bit cheesed off and dragged his tall head out of here to throw a wobbly, I wager. Bloody tosser." (to translate this fairly British sentence I have to say that it means "Angel and I had a fight. He got pissed of and dragged his tall head out of here to have a tantrum. Bloody Jerk" –Yay British dictionaries)

Giles heard this as he walked back from the bar. "That was rather British, Even for me."

"What did you say to him?" Buffy looked annoyed as she towered over Spike sitting.

"Nothing! He just got all sensitive and stormed off."

Buffy looked at him skeptically "Right. We're leaving"

"Hey! What? Why?" He said as she ignored him to get the others.

She came back with Xander, Willow, Dawn, and Andrew. Spike got up and followed them out the door.

"Come on now. We don't have to leave just for him." He said which made Buffy turn around angrily.

"I am tired and I need to wake up early tomorrow." She turns back around and exits. But then to there surprise everyone saw her flash a bright pink. They ran out to check on her when they paused as they flashed colors as well. Willow glowed red, Xander glowed blue, Andrew glowed purple, Giles glowed orange, and Spike glowed yellow. The only one who didn't get hit was Dawn.

They all turned and saw the same man who got Angel. He stood in the alley and snickered.

"Don't speak." He put his hand out making it so Buffy couldn't talk, or even move for that matter. "We wouldn't want to be ruining my escape, now would we? Rhetorical question of course." He looked at them evilly while chuckling. "I will just leave you here now. I hope you enjoy yourselves. Ta ta." The man strolled off and disappeared around the corner. The Scoobies collapsed as they were able to move again.

Xander got up and asked "Is everyone alright?"

"Well I can move my arms and legs and have no head bumps, so I think I'll be fine." Dawn said while dusting herself off.

"Who the hell was that?" Spike was really annoyed.

"I don't know, but who ever he is he must be pretty strong if he can hold us like that. And what was the flash of light." Willow looks around for Buffy but doesn't see her. "Hey, Where did Buffy go?"

"She probably went to go pound the ass whole to the bloody ground. I should go and catch up before something goes horribly wrong." He jumped on to the building with his leather coat fluttering in the air as he landed and ran in the direction of Buffy's sent.

"Okay, well, does anybody sense anything different with them? Dizziness? The urge to get sick? A bit of wooziness perhaps?" Giles asked while adjusting his glasses.

Xander kind of examined himself to make sure he was the same. "I do have a slight case of the creeps, but gosh, I get that every night."

"I feel fine. Just like I did an hour ago." Willow said.

"That guy was all soave and cool like Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow never dies… Well, without the gun and tux." Andrew said off topic like always

"Andrew if you don't just SHUT UP I will be very tempted to liquefy you." Everyone looked at Willow, shocked, as they heard her snap on Andrew like that. "I didn't… uhhh, I mean, Sorry Andrew." 

"I guess we have are symptoms. We should head back to headquarters and hit the books for information." Dawn suggested as she realized where the sudden burst of anger was coming from.

"Isn't it kind of late? Can't we just work everything out tomorrow?" Xander yawned.

Dawn looked at her watch. "It's only 8:30. What exactly where you planning on doing?"

"I am little tired so I thought that I would just hit the hay."

"No! There is no way we are going to just let 'hit the hay'" Willow grabbed Xander by the sleeve and dragged him in the direction of headquarters. Giles, Dawn, and Andrew followed after them.

Meanwhile Buffy continued to run after the mysterious man. She had darted off just before he was to far away to chase. What she didn't know was that he could sense her behind him. But he kept on going, waiting for her to actually approach him.

The both of them entered an abandoned shack about a mile from where they had their confrontation. He stopped as if he was about to do something and Buffy finally decided to take action and attack, but as soon as she swung her fist she froze with her arm in mid air. 'oh, this is just great' She thought to herself while trying to figure out how to escape this pickle she was in.

"Now, I thought I told you to let me make my escape. Following me isn't really allowing me to do that, is it? See I was only thinking of you because, hey, I'm such a swell guy. Giving you guys a chance and all. Actually, scratch that. You would have been dead in a few days, but at least you had your chance to reflect on the wonders of life. Now, coming here all not invited and what not was a bad idea. I have too much power for one pathetic little slayer to handle." The guy went on and on like any other ambitious demon. He was too busy talking to realize the presence behind him.

"What about a slayer and a royally pissed off vampire?" Spike said as the guy fell to the ground. Buffy's arm was suddenly released from it's magical hold and with all that strength she put into the punch, it kept going until she accidentally hit Spike right in the mouth. It threw him back a bit and he grasped where her fist made contact with his face.

"Whoops, I'm sorry. You okay?"

"Dandy. Nothing to go on about. It's been a while since you gave me a nice punch on the jaw. Now hold on a second while I put my face back together." He said with a snicker behind his words. She walked over to check on him.

"You know you didn't have to step in. I could have handled it myself."

"Right. If I would have let you handle it yourself I would have been sweeping up Slayer bits right about now."

"Hey, what makes you so sure?"

"Well, you do the dying scene quite enough and that guy demon thing or whatever made it so you couldn't lift a finger."

"It isn't like you haven't died twice ya know."

"Then we should both try and cut ourselves from the habit"

"That would probably be for the best." Buffy stroked his cheek, both for medical and loving reasons, and looked up at his face. She went silent and took a couple of seconds to think about how she truly felt about him. He recognized her expression and kept that feeling close to him as he saw her face change. Now for some reason she started looking at him like starving dog would look at a great big steak.

He leaned back a little bit, but then she just randomly jumped on top of him with her lips smacking against his. She flew at him so hard that they both landed on the ground. At first he was a bit stunned at her sudden burst of kissing, but then he tried to push her off.

"I don't…think now… is exactly… a splendid time for…this. Bu…B…BUFFY!" He said between numerous tongue down the throat until he was finally able to hold her off. "Have you gone completely off your rocker?" She looked at the situation and began to come out of her random state of lust, for a while at least. She got up, as did Spike.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what got in to me. I just all of a sudden felt this need to…" Buffy paused as she fell right back into the wanting of Spike. She grabbed him by the shirt and threw him to the wall. Kisses were flying all over the place and she flew her arm around his neck to make the whole thing more passionate. Then her free hand tugged at his shirt while truing to pop the buttons off.

He kept trying to get her of him until he finally just shoved her off. "Don't you understand that this is really not the time or place for this? He could wake up any moment you know. We ought to take care of him first." Spike pointed to the guy on the ground. He saw her disappointment. "Now really. What's got into you."

"Didn't I just tell you I didn't know?"

"Yeah, well we really need to figu- hey! What about that flash?"

"What flash?"

"That flash of pink you had as you exited the club."

"I flashed pink."

"Well yeah, didn't you notice?"

"No, but I did have some weird feeling come over me. Like weird burst of heat."

"Me too."

"Well you know that that can't be good."


	5. 4From mermaids to nickin' panties

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or settings. They belong to the wonderful Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy**

**A/N: Sorry for the delay again and also for the shortness of the chapter. Since I go to an year round school I just finished my first semester so I was rapped up in finals. Now I get to be on break for the next two weeks so hopefully I can get a couple other chapters out to you. I had a fun time writing this chap so enjoy.**

**Chapter 4**

From accusing mermaids to nickin' panties

It was quiet and the two blondes walked down the street separated about ten feet from each other.

"Spike. This is ridiculous. We really don't need to be this far apart." Buffy turned to look at Spike who had the demon guy tied up and over his shoulder.

"Like hell we don't. You're bloody destructive under these sorts of spells."

"I am not." She crossed her arms in a teenager sort of way.

"Do I have to remind you about me having to tackle you to the ground so you didn't get principle Wood real friendly with the rocket launcher? Or even when you're not under a spell. We took down a whole soddin' house, you and I."

"Oh, yeah. But still! You could at least give me something to do, like carry the guy or something."

"And have you start snogging the pants off him then? I don't think so." He said smirking.

"That isn't funny." Buffy stated trying to seem like she wasn't amused and hid the smile that was appearing on her face.

"No, I am dead serious. There's no need to get something to slow us down. Sun is almost out."

"Anymore remarks like that and you're staying outside."

Meanwhile the others started looking through the library to find whatever they could on the demon or the symptoms they seemed to have. They looked and looked, but their luck wasn't there in their search. The frustration grew in the room and silence was non existent since you could hear everyone moaning and groaning as books piled up higher and higher.

"Ooooooh!" Dawn squealed in excitement. They all jerked their heads toward her hoping that she found something. Then Dawn's face fell after she continued reading. "Uhhh, never mind."

"Would you just finish reading before you speak up? Jeeze. Keep looking." Willow said irritated and under the influence of what ever spell was cast on her. Dawn was taken back a bit, but Willow was at the point where she wouldn't even apologize.

Giles entered the room with a huge cart which carried what the Scoobies could only imagine as the entire stock of books that they had in the library. He casually started to page through them one by one and they stared at him with curiosity. "What? Aren't you all supposed to be studying your text?"

"Yeah, but what's with the big stack-o-literature goodness? Now when I mean goodness, I mean more like sleep fest" Xander said as he was sprawled out on the couch and his eyes half closed.

"I just thought it best we be very thorough with our research on the matter."

Dawn walked over and picked up one of the books he brought. She rolled her eyes while reading the title. "The Little Mermaid? Giles, why on earth would we need this?"

"Well, we need to cover all our areas. You never know what you could find in everyday fairy tales."

"I heard that the book was really different from the Disney movie. Full of dark stuff and incest. And I think Ariel dies in the end." Andrew randomly stated.

"Would you all just SIT and find out what the hell we're infected with! God, why can't you just stop being so useless?!" Willow yelled and everyone obeyed.

"PMS much? But, I think I could take her." Andrew whispered into Dawns ear, but she just gave out one quiet 'yeah right' chuckle.

No one spoke for several minutes, but the silence broke when Spike and Buffy entered the room. Spike threw the still unconscious guy on the table.

"Lookie, lookie what we brought with us. A nice wanker all prepped and ready for a couple hours interrogation." Spike started to make sure the ropes where tight around the guy's wrists and ankles.

"Ooo, research. Wait. Does this mean that things have been going wonky with you guys too?" Buffy gave a bit of a wig.

"Um, yeah. Well, Willow's been a tad cranky, notice the death glare, Xander decided that he wants to be a vegetable planted on the couch, notice him passed out on it, Giles has been over 'thorough', notice the dramatic mountain of books, and Andrew has been extra cocky. Why? What happened to you?" Dawn pointed out.

Buffy began to blush and answered "Never mind me. Did anything happen to you?" She directed her question toward just Dawn.

"I remain unaffected. I don't even think I was hit."

"Wow. You're not the one in mortal danger as far as we know. That's not as pre usual. Do any of you have a lead on what he did to us?"

"Giles thinks it's a bunch of mermaids hoping to get legs and attack."

Giles over heard them and butted in. "I do not. I just implied that there was a mere chance that these novels may help us toward our goal to gain any information on what has happened."

"Other than that we have nothing."

"Then we should keep up with the mind aching reading. Hopefully this guy will wake up soon so I can just beat the info out of him." Buffy said but then she looked around and saw somebody missing from their group. "Hey, has anybody seen Angel since the club?" Everybody shook their heads, except for Xander who was now snoring.

"Don't waist you worry on that git. Like I said, he probably just went off to have himself a nice big sodding tantrum. At least he had the slightest decency to do it alone." Spike said in the utter dislike of Buffy mentioning him.

"Yeah, but I would still like to know that he didn't have a run in with high and mighty over here. Would you look for him please?" She made sure not to look directly at him incase she got those sexual urges again.

"Damn it Slayer! You better well be happy that I have a soul now or I wouldn't be so nice after hearing that demand. Fine. But I am gonna go change first. I think you ripped my shirt when you…"

"I get it!" She said before he could finish. He just grinned and walked off. Everyone looked skeptically at her. "What?"

Spike opened the door to Buffy and Dawn's apartment. He would have gone to his own, but most of his clothes were here and it was closer. He figured that he could just quickly change and get the search for Angel over with.

He first went to steal a beer from the fridge, but stopped when he heard a noise coming from Buffy's room. Spike quietly went to her bedroom door and grasped the handle. Then he jerked it open quickly to find Angel hovered over Buffy's dresser.

"Angel?! What in the bloody hell are you doing here?!" He yelled, but then his face grew horrifying when he noticed Buffy's top drawer opened which contained her unmentionables. "Were you nickin' Buffy's panties?!"


	6. 5Roughing it up

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or settings. They were created by the wonderful Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.**

**A/N: I would like to take this chapter as an opportunity to thank the people who have been reviewing. They have been a big help and I probably wouldn't have any motivation to keep writing this story I it wasn't for you guys. I have know idea how many more chapter this is going to have. It could be one more, it could be twenty more. Thanks to Secret Slayer, RabidReject, Amor-caecus, JeMS7, and the voice of. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 5**

Roughing it up

"No, I wasn't!" Angel put his hands up to show that he wasn't holding anything. "Do you really think that I would steal underwear? I'm not you, you know." Spike looked at him confused. "Yeah, I heard about that."

"First of all that was a couple sweaters, secondly that was before I went out and got myself a soul, and thirdly…" He went closer to Angel and stripped his jacket off him.

"Hey! Stop…,give…, no…, Spike!" He tried to fight him off his coat, but he was unsuccessful. Angel looked at him in annoyance while Spike helped himself to look through the pockets.

"What the…? A book, a CD, a necklace,…a can opener?" He said as he pulled each object out of his pocket. "Aha!" Spike made his vampire-ish growl when he also discovered a pair of pink lacy panties. "So you are going all stalker boy on her then?"

"Well, nobody can do as good a job as you've done, but I'll do my best." He said in a not so serious tone.

Spike ran up to him and slammed Angel against the wall. "Listen here, peaches. Buffy is MINE. All MINE."

"Well, it's obvious that you don't deserve her. Women don't generally like it when you treat them like possessions."

"If I see you even touch her I'll rip your throat out."

"I am not going to let you have her. I want Buffy so I am going to find some way to get her."

"You stupid git." Spike hoisted him up by the collar and threw him to the other side of the room. He crashed into an end table and pushed over a lamp which crashed on the floor. "Do you really think that you are going to walk over to her, all tall dark and forehead and sweep her off her feet?"

"It's happened before" Angel picked himself up and dusted himself off.

"But not again."

They all took a break from reading and decided to try and wake their hostage up for questioning. Buffy had tied him around a poll. He was starting to wake up a little and Dawn was about to pour water above his, but stopped.

"Are you sure it's entirely safe for us to wake him? He could use the whammy on us again." She asked.

"It's safe. The power was only channeled through his hands. Pour it on him." Willow's voice was dark cold and lacked a lot of enthusiasm.

Dawn did just that making the guy wake up and shake the water off his head. Immediately he tugged his ropes but they wouldn't give. He became frustrated that he couldn't break free.

"Well this is sure a predicament, isn't it? I am not even sure how I got here. Ya know it isn't exactly fair to knock a guy out when he doesn't even know someone else is behind him. And then tie him up like a little puppy dog."

"So, Using you powers on us so we can't defend are selves is fair?" questioned Dawn.

"Of course not. But I am evil. Evil has different rules and we don't believe in fair. That's you good people with all your morals and what not."

"Cut the crap. Just tell us who you are and what you did to us." Buffy was beginning to become impatient

"If that's what you want then why don't you get that pretty little knife and make me talk."

Buffy didn't have enough time to even turn her head to see the knife Willow picked it up so quickly. She pushed it into his neck hard enough so that it hurt, but didn't puncture his skin. "That better? Now tell us what we need to know or so help me I'm gonna…" She was cut off from a loud snore coming from the other corner. "Buffy! Go wake Xander!"

"Willow, you need to calm down." She said but then Willow gave a glare that would even creep Buffy out. So Buffy did as she said and went over to Xander. "Xander. Xander. Come on Xand, wake up." He woke up as she shook him harder, but to his surprise she was straddling him. This time she wasn't After Spike. "Hey Xander? Remember when you use to be in love with me." She whispered in his ear.

"Buffy? What the hell?" Dawn looked at her sister like she was insane.

She kept trying kiss him but he just batted her away. "Buffy not now. Tryin' to … (_snore)_"

"Get off him, Buffy" Giles was now eating and reading at the same time. His last words were mumbled over a Jaffa cake he plopped in his mouth. Buffy pouted her lip and got off him.

"SHUT UP! Shut up all of you!" Willow's eyes were now black and she turned her gaze back to her target. He began to laugh maniacally.

"So you wanna know what's happening? I can tell you. You won't be able to fix it anyway. Your going to die no matter what I do. First of all my name. They call me Gildaroy. Well you kids are infected with a thing I like to call sin balls. Now this pretty little orb looking ball magically makes a person act on one of the seven deadly sins a thousand times over. Eventually you will be so consumed by it that it kills you. It might not be a big bang or boom of a death but it can be pretty entertaining."

"How do we stop it?" Willow growled.

"Didn't you hear me sweet pea? You can't stop it. It WILL kill you." He just chuckled.

"Here, I can get him to talk." Andrew sat next to Willow and waved his hand over the man's face like he was using the force. "You will tell us what we want to know."

Willow made Andrew fly against a wall with a wave of her hand. "Silence."

Right then there was the sound of the door opening and then closing. In came Spike with bruises, cuts, and blood galore. Buffy, Dawn, and Giles looked up at them in horror. "What happen to the two of you?" Buffy asked.

"Got into a bit of an argument. What happened here?" Spike notice the guy awake, Andrew unconscious on the ground, Xander unconscious on the couch next to him, Willow with black eyes, and Buffy really sweaty.

"You mean you did this to each other?" Dawn gave them shock face.

"A little bit. He started it." Angel looked at his feet.

"I did not. That wanker stole from you Buffy!"

"What?" Her eyes widened

"He took your underwear!"

"WHAT?! Why?"

"I didn't only take underwear!" Angel said as if it were to make up for it. "I took a can opener too, but of course you forget about that."

"Again, why?"

"They were shiny, and I don't know what came over me but I REALLY wanted them."

"That must be what Gilda-who's-it's…" Dawn began and Gildaroy tried to correct her (It's GILDAROY) "…been talking about. Angel, your infected with ball of sin that makes you really envious."

"He didn't exactly get the chance to nick anything else. Gave him a bit of a rough and tumble." Spike said

"A bit." It was quite obvious that that wouldn't convince Buffy since for he said that with a fat lip.

"Well I would go in your room." Angel said. Buffy rolled her eyes.

"I'll get bandages for you injuries, yes?" Giles said as he put down his food and book.

"No, Giles. I can get it." Dawn turned to Spike and Angel. "He probably would come back with a toothbrush or something." She left them a little confused and walked out.

"So what else have you found out about this big glowing thing?" Spike asked.

"Well, according to him (gestures to Gildaroy) each of use has a certain sin. Willow obviously has wrath, Mr. Over do over there has gluttony, Xander has sloth, Andrew has pride, I have…"

"A big case of the randies?" Spike added.

"Which leaves you with greed."

"Well that explains a lot." Angel scoffed.

"Sod off!"

"Well, I'm going to go back to my apartment to get some supplies incase this gets out of hand. Coming Spike?" Buffy headed for the door.

"Uh, sure. But we need to take the sewers. Sun's out."

"Buffy wait." Dawn entered again. "Take this." She handed her a first aid kit. "You might as well fix him up while you're there."

"Thanks. Okay, let's go." She said.

Spike nodded and they left.


End file.
